Orioles OF situation raises questions

The ball, by Orioles outfielder Nolan Reimold’s estimates, eluded
him by a margin of 5-10 feet, hitting the Budweiser advertisement in left
center field and scoring a pair of Rays’ runs, including the go-ahead tally in
Tampa Bay’s 4-3 win over Baltimore in front of a crowd of 15,220 Wednesday
night.

To his credit, Reimold won’t make any excuses, although by
the Orioles’ original plans, he had no business testing his surgically repaired
left Achilles tendon on Tropicana Field’s artificial turf. At least, not yet. But Opening Day starter Felix
Pie hurt his left shoulder throwing to the plate in Tuesday’s loss, and manager
Dave Trembley was forced to move up Reimold’s season debut.

“I may not have that
first step or whatever, I don’t know, for a little while,” Reimold admitted. “But
I was feeling all right out there.”

Could Evan Longoria’s game-winning double had been a fifth inning-ending
out with a healthy Reimold or Pie ? It was a question that loomed large in a
loss filled with a stagnant offense and a quality start from Jeremy Guthrie that
went for naught as the Orioles dropped their second straight game.

Reimold said he felt OK in left field and he did beat out
the double play in one of his at-bats. Still, it’s an issue that has been
talked about all spring and was thrust into the limelight on Wednesday.

The Orioles can’t afford to waste a start like they got from
Guthrie. Is Luke Scott a better option than a less than full-throttle Reimold
or Pie? That’s Trembley’s call. Still, I’d be interested in hearing what you
all think…

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5 Comments

i commented on it in my blog post tonight, but im totally against reimold in left.

pie needs to be the every day guy there, then with reimold in on occasion. i know this messes up the o’s plans, but its necessary

Both Adam Jones and Carl Crawford made nice rundowns on fly balls that they were able to barely catch. Twice, though, Reimold missed catches on the run that I believe Pie would easily get. Both times he was close enough to get it. The first he just missed with his glove and the second he just wasn’t ready for it seemed. Very dissappointed. I have always said since last season that he isn’t fit for left field. I think soon enough he will move to 1st. Especially when Atkins is gone, I think that spot should become Reimold’s.

yea, no team wants luke in the outfield really. then again, if pie isnt ready tomorrow, i would even try luke start there for the game and then reimold can dh. try it out, better to figure it out now as opposed to during the upcoming 3 series vs the yanks/bosox

I think the two biggest issues coming out of the second loss of the season is Trembley’s cluelessness with his bullpen and another poor performance at the plate for Brian Roberts.

In the last two seasons, Trembley overworked his bullpen in the first four months to the point that they were thoroughly exhausted by August and beyond. It looked like he was reverting to this bad habit again in the season opener when he used four relievers. Then the following night, “Damien the” Ohman was effective in getting the last two outs in the seventh and the first one in the eighth, but it didn’t matter because Trembley decided to get cute and replace him with “Clabaugh” Meredith for no particularly logical reason. Longo’s homer off of Meredith’s second pitch ended up being the game-winning run.

The truth about Roberts is that he is a terrible situational hitter. In the opener, he was at the plate in the ninth inning with no outs, Garrett Atkins at third, Cesar Izturis at first and the Orioles leading 3-2. The goal was to score Atkins and increase the lead to two. What Roberts was supposed to have done was deny the Rays of any chance of throwing Atkins out at the plate. Even a 4-6-3 double play drives in Atkins safely. It didn’t happen. Fast forward one night, ninth inning with Felix Pie at third as the potential tying run. Roberts swings at Rafael Soriano’s first pitch, pops out, game over. Did he ever consider at least taking the first pitch?

It’s not the physical mistakes that are killing the Orioles. It’s the mental ones.

Unfortunately we have 3 players who are best suited at DH. Reimold,Scott & Wiggy are slow & it shows even more on artificial turf.
We have wasted 2 good starting pitching performances. If we don’t win the majority of games in which the opposition only scores 4 runs we aren’t going to see much improvement over last year.
If I’m not mistaken I believe we were near the bottom in hitting stats during ST. That has carried over to the regular season. 3 runs aren’t going to win many games.

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